Despite the lovely, celadon water lapping along the shore,
Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay is no paradise. Rain doesn’t fall there
often, so the vegetation, mostly mere scrub-brush, is almost as
much brown as green. The heat makes a visitor feel like an
enervated sloth who can’t find his favorite shade tree. What’s
worse for the inmates at Camp Delta is that while they can see and
smell the Caribbean oh-so-close to their quarters, they will never
dip a toe in its waters. Clearly their tropical sojourn is no day
at the beach.
Nor should it be.
On Tuesday I joined a small group of visitors — lawyers,
scholars, journalists, and military personnel — to tour the
controversial facility where the United States imprisons several
hundred “enemy combatants” in the “Global War on Terrorism.” I
wouldn’t long endure the inmates’ living conditions even for a
subsequent life of untold riches. But I left there incredibly proud
of the American military personnel who operate Guantanamo’s
facilities. They do so in a transparent and humane manner while
working overtime at their dual mission: protecting their country
from terrorists and ensuring that the detainees are treated with
appropriate consideration.
Ground rules governing our trip were that we can describe
anything we saw or were told, but not with direct attribution to
specific military personnel. Of the six prison areas (cellblocks?)
at Camp Delta, two are entirely empty. About 380 detainees populate
the other four areas — the most cooperative and/or least dangerous
of which are in slightly nicer quarters, with slightly greater
privileges (joint recreation areas rather than single-person rec
areas, for instance). They are afforded high-quality medical care
from seven physicians, 12 nurses, and 83 Corpsmen: In the five
years or so the facility has been operating, it has provided 6,478
dental procedures, about 5,000 vaccinations, and 20 colonoscopies
(statistics provided by U.S. armed services). Four distinct menus
are offered for all detainees (some heavier in fiber than others,
some vegetarian, etc.), and all are offered (but certainly not
required to consume) 4,500-5,000 calories of food per day.
All have access to recreation of at least two hours (and as much
as 12) per day; some have access to board games such as Checkers
and chess, and to a 5,000-piece library, and to two Korans each
(one in Arabic and another in their native tongue). In each cell,
and throughout the complex, arrows point the way (and sometimes the
distance) to Mecca, and they are afforded prayer time on five
occasions each day — during which, signs remind the guards to keep
quiet.
Some 1,000 American military personnel serve as guards for these
detainees. For their efforts, from July 2005 to August of 2006 they
were subjected to at least 432 “bodily fluid assaults” (more than
one per day), 227 physical assaults, and all sorts of other
indignities from detainees who often loudly boast of their own
status as jihadists and sometimes openly revel in the mayhem at the
Twin Towers.
Yet, according to top brass, “Not a single instance of torture
or inhumane treatment here has ever been substantiated.”
International observers on record in various forums have been
impressed. Said Alain Grignard, Deputy Head of Brussels Federal
Police Anti-Terrorism Unit: “At the level of the detention
facilities, it is a model prison, where people are better treated
than in Belgian prisons.” Said Arlene McCarthy, Member of European
Parliament (UK Socialist): “We were able to confirm that conditions
for prisoners were better than reported.” And Anne-Marie Lizin,
President of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe
(and chair of the Belgian Senate), said the medical facilities were
“entirely comparable, in stocks and in products alike, to that of a
normal, small-scale hospital,” and indicated that she could not
“dream of something better for the POWs.”
Not that the facilities are a picnic, by any means. Security is
extremely tight and fencing and other barriers are extensive. Some
individual cells, basically steel mesh cages, are as little as 58
square feet, with toilets at one end and built-in bed-shelves atop
which sit foam mattresses. Other cells range up to 96 square feet.
The recreational areas are either hard-packed dirt or concrete, and
they are covered to protect detainees from the broiling sun. Some,
but not all, of the cellblocks are more modern, with well-working
air conditioning and more privacy. One of them includes an
incipient herb garden for more cooperative inmates, with three
planters now and seven more to come. Regardless of the specific
arrangements, every cellblock is scrupulously kept clean, in proper
military fashion. Every single American in uniform seemed
impressively dedicated to the twin mottoes “Honor Bound to Defend
Freedom” and “Safe and Humane Care and Custody.” Their work must
not be at all pleasant, but they seem to take pride in doing it
well.
Despite all the crazy reporting to the contrary, interrogations
at Guantanamo Bay never have
included particularly extreme techniques, and now all are done
according to the updated U.S. Army Field Manual. The actual
interrogation room in Camp Five, for detainees of particularly
significant intelligence value, has the feel of a small therapist’s
office. Two plush and comfortable armchairs (one, a recliner, with
a place on the floor nearby to attach an ankle-iron) face each
other across a dark-wooded desk, while the surrounding walls are
painted in a warm and cozy hue. Fresh food and drink are available
during the interviews. Explained one of the military personnel
involved: “The only torture done here is when the Starbucks is
cold.”
ASIDE FROM THE ABSURD ALLEGATIONS of torture, the biggest
controversy surrounding Guantanamo involves the legal disputes
about whether, how, and under what circumstances (if at all) the
detainees should have access to American courts or other procedures
to prove they are not dangerous, or that they have been held by
mistake, and to secure their release. Our tour included extensive
briefings on practices and procedures involved in the
administrative reviews, and a visit both to the review room and to
the thoroughly modernized courtroom where more formal trials are
held.
This is not the forum for legal analysis, but from a practical
standpoint, certain points beg for attention.
First, none of these detainees in the
“war on terror” have been brought to the Guantanamo facility
without being carefully adjudged to be among the worst of the
worst. (None, by the way, are from Iraq; these are all from the
fighting in Afghanistan or other worldwide terror fronts.) Only
about 770 detainees have ever been brought to Guantanamo, whereas
far more than that number have been captured overall, quite
obviously, during American and allied efforts in Afghanistan.
Second, more have been sent away from
the facility than those that remain there. Some have been sent to
captivity in their home countries — but only after extensive
review to make sure they will not be subject to torture once there
— while several dozen others have been released entirely. (Of
those released, about 20 are now known to have rejoined the fight
against the free world, which means that if anything the reviews
have been too lenient.) Every single detainee has his case reviewed
in administrative proceedings at least once a year. Such reviews
are not required under the Geneva Conventions and are not obligated
under any other national or international law, but they are
American policy so as to do everything humanly possible to ensure
that the detainees not only were indeed terrorist threats but that
they would remain so if let go.
Third, the 37,000 interrogations so
far at Guantanamo, including those of about 20 detainees with
direct personal knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and another 15 with
special training in using Improvised Explosive Devices, have
reportedly provided a huge volume of information that has been
useful in warding off new terrorist attacks.
Fourth, and most importantly… The
ordinary American is almost sure, at some point, to ask this simple
question: Why should these detainees have generalized access to
specific, formal legal proceedings at all, much less to American
courts? Aren’t these detainees, in effect, Prisoners of War? In
World War II, did the POWs we captured from Germany and Japan have
access to administrative trials or to American courts?
Of course not. In effect, those POWs, often conscripts doing
their nation’s bidding in formal warfare, were afforded fewer
“rights” than are these terrorist detainees who fight of their own
volition, under no nation’s flag, and recognize no Geneva
Conventions or any other of the ordinary “rules” of war. It is
bizarre, from this vantage point, to treat these terrorist versions
of POWs as if they merit the same protections provided to ordinary
soldiers, much less any of the privileges given to
American citizens charged with criminal activity.
AMERICANS GENERALLY BELIEVE in an ethic that requires all human
beings to be treated, yes, humanely. What I saw at Guantanamo Bay
convinced me that we do so with these terrorists. That is more, of
course, than they would do for us. What they would do to
us, of course, is to kill us all, adults and innocent children
alike, as infidels. In this light, Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay is
not a mark of dishonor on the American nation, but a badge of great
honor. Under difficult circumstances, our men and women in uniform
there protect our nation and serve the cause of humanity as
well.
I close with a public quote from another member of the European
Parliament, one James Elles: “My impression is that the camp is run
with the utmost professionalism and the conditions under which
detainees are being held are clean and humane, and follow the
spirit of the Geneva Conventions. I was very grateful for the
opportunity to see for myself that the reality of Guantanamo is
very different from the largely negative portrait given by the
press on our side of the Atlantic. Until the issue of what happens
to detainees is resolved, the closing of Guantanamo could make the
war on terrorism more difficult and ultimately more dangerous for
our citizens.”
